By Roy Mathur, on 2025-10-20, at 23:51:15 to 01:34:34 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
Notable Cast: Seventh Doctor: Sylvester McCoy, Companion Mel Bush: Bonnie Langford, Tollmaster: Ken Dodd; musical hall and TV absurdist comedian, Gavrok: Don Henderson; heavies, detectives (Bulman esp.), and Star Wars, Delta: Belinda Mayne; various small roles inc. warrior Vella in Krull, Keillor (bounty hunter): Brian Hibbard of The Flying Pickets
Director: Chris Clough; DW creds.: Terror of the Vervoids, The Ultimate Foe, Dragonfire, The Happiness Patrol, Silver Nemesis
Writer: Malcolm Kohll; also a producer of The 51st State
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Location: BBC Television Centre, Shepherd's Bush, opening battle at Springwell Quarry in Hertfordshire, Tollport G715 at Llandow Trading Estate, holiday camp at Barry Island, picnic at Pyscodlyn Mawr Reservoir and other locations in Wales in 1987
Broadcast: Story 146, serial 3, season 24, following Paradise Towers (pod 593), 3 x c. 25, 2--16 Nov 1987
Media: Target novelization by Malcolm Kohll 1989, audiobook read by Bonnie Langford (?), VHS 2001, 2002, DVD 2009, 2011, Blu-ray 2021, BBC iPlayer since 1 Nov 2023
The UK no. 1 single was the Bee Gees' You Win again, while peaking at 2 was the better George Michael's Faith. George Harrison released Cloud Nine album containing the highly irritating Got My Mind Set on You and Paul McCartney released All the Best! inc. Ebony and Ivory, No More Lonely Nights, Live and Let Die, and Mull of Kintyre.
Doctor Who was wedged betwixt Wogan and Brush Strokes on BBC1 at 19:35.
Surviving Gavrok's Bannermen, Queen Delta of the Chimeron escapes with an egg, and boards an alien tourist retro space bus, also carrying Mel, because their "last holiday wasn't exactly ice hot", with the Doctor following in the Tardis. It's heading for Disney Land, but hits a satellite and crash lands at a 50s Welsh holiday camp. The Doctor helps fix the bus. Mel and Delta share a room and the egg hatches a hideous larval creature, much to Mel's horror. Fed a substance similar to royal jelly, the creature rapidly grows into a greenish humanoid child.
Delta and rocker Billy fall in love at a dance. The Doctor comforts Billy's friend Ray, when they are held up by a space bounty hunter, until he is betrayed and "ionised" by Gavrock after revealing his location. The Bannermen land and destroy the space bus and the tourists. Gavrok also booby-traps the TARDIS, but he and his Bannermen are attacked by bees and the Chimeron child's scream played over the PA. Disorientated, Gavrok succumbs to his own booby-trap.
Billy, who ate the special alien food, hoping to become compatible with Delta, leaves on Gavrok's ship with her and the child to re-start the Chimeron species. The Doctor and Mel say goodbye to them, Goronwy the beekeeper who helped shelter Delta earlier, Burton the manager, and points out to elderly CIA spies, Hawk and Weismuller, that their missing satellite crashed into the sign for the camp.
Nostalgia for 50s UK; holiday camps, rock'n'roll, vehicles; Vincent Black Shadow, Vespa, Morris Minor, the retro coaches, Eagle (1950--).
Driving, not running around for a change.
Superfluous elderly American spooks as comic relief.
Gavrok literally foisted by his own petard; not sure I've ever seen this on screen before.
Dead Dodd: Ken Dodd's shock demise in episode one filled me with glee. Dodd, a music hall comedian, far too ubiquitous a TV presence, creeped me out when I was little, so I enjoyed watching him exploded by Gavrok. Don Henderson's Gavrock is a nasty piece of work, a heavy, typical of the roles he excelled in. Belinda Mayne is a regal, sexy, space disco queen. I found the explosive demise of the rockabilly space bounty hunter, played by The Flying Pickets' Brian Hibbard, to a few rocky twangs and leaving nothing but his blue suede shoes, highly comedic.
I love that the very alien "Squat, wrinkly, purply creatures" aren't bent on galactic conquest, just looking forward to their hols. It is all the more shocking that they, including charming Murray the driver, are suddenly killed by Gavrok.
Who is that kindly, eccentric, and mysterious beekeeper with the crafty laugh at the end?
FX great. Space scenes; the Bannermen vessel, the space bus, Tollport G715, the transformation arch effect. Outfits; almost Blake's 7 Federation-style black-clad evil Bannermen, white spacey/disco suited greenish good aliens, and rock'n'roll humans. Creature design; purple, sucker covered, Michelin Man Navarinos and larval Chimeron space baby, props and weapons; the right balance between high-tech and mundane.
Fast-paced, funny, surprisingly violent, decent sci-fi comedy leaves you wanting more. It is spoiled only by the tonally disruptive slaughter of those poor tourists. I particularly appreciated the battle at the beginning and the scenes at the tollport. I haven't enjoyed classic Doctor Who so much for a while.
In Howe, walker, and Stammer's Handbook: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Production of Doctor Who, Sylvester McCoy speaking to the legendary Peter Haining, genre anthology editor and non-fiction author, for Doctor Who---25 Glorious Years, says "It was a fun story to do... Nobody was trying to act the star... I was still a bit of a new boy... but they were very welcoming." (Page 712, full quote in pod).
I have read in numerous places that the title was originally Flight of the Chimeron, but changed to reference Echo and the Bunnymen. Sounds probable, though I didn't find evidence.
The Butlin's holiday camp is on the Barry Island resort. I stayed at a different Butlin's in Minehead in the 80s and visited the island in the off-season in the 90s.